--- title: The Walking Dead Could Last as Long as Star Trek Says AMC description: The Walking Dead will return for its seventh season Oct. 23, but in the eyes of AMC, the show hasn't come close to running its course. canonical: https://time.com/4504963/walking-dead-star-trek-interview/ author: Megan McCluskey article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-09-22T21:10:23.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:36:54.187Z og:title: AMC Believes The Walking Dead Could Last as Long as Star Trek og:description: Get ready for a whole lot more Rick Grimes og:url: https://time.com/4504963/walking-dead-star-trek-interview/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt61096435b3179946/6988a70f8e0601d2f44678e7/walking-dead-finale.jpeg?branch=production&width=1920&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: walking-dead-finale og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: AMC Believes The Walking Dead Could Last as Long as Star Trek twitter:description: Get ready for a whole lot more Rick Grimes twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt61096435b3179946/6988a70f8e0601d2f44678e7/walking-dead-finale.jpeg?branch=production&width=1920&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # AMC Believes _The Walking Dead_ Could Last as Long as _Star Trek_  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Sep 22, 2016 9:10 PM UTC  The Walking Dead Season 6, Episode 16 The Walking Dead Season 6, Episode 16Gene Page/AMC  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Sep 22, 2016 9:10 PM UTC [_The Walking Dead_](http://time.com/4194632/walking-dead-villains-ranking/)is slated to return for its [seventh season](http://time.com/4420036/walking-dead-season-7-trailer/) Oct. 23, a mark many television showrunners never even dream of reaching. But in the eyes of [AMC](http://time.com/4293830/amc-theaters-texting-movies/) executives, the zombie drama hasn’t nearly come close to running its course. During Goldman Sachs annual Communacopia Conference Wednesday, AMC Network President and CEO Josh Sapan revealed that he thinks the show has the potential to run for as long as _Star Trek_ has. Of the zombie series, he said, it “has incredible long life left in it,” and could continue to run for “many, many more years.” “\[_Star Trek_\] came and went three times,” he added, according to [The Wrap. ](http://www.thewrap.com/walking-dead-star-trek-amc-hiddleston-taylor-swift/)“We do think that we have a franchise \[in _The Walking Dead_\] that is one of the rare franchises that you occasionally come across in what we do for a living.” Given that _Star Trek_ just celebrated its 50th anniversary, _TWD_ has a lot of catching up to do. Read more at [TheWrap.com](http://www.thewrap.com/walking-dead-star-trek-amc-hiddleston-taylor-swift/). ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4504963/walking-dead-star-trek-interview/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4504963/walking-dead-star-trek-interview/"},"headline":"AMC Believes The Walking Dead Could Last as Long as Star Trek","datePublished":"2016-09-22T21:10:23.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:36:54.187Z","description":"Get ready for a whole lot more Rick Grimes","url":"https://time.com/4504963/walking-dead-star-trek-interview/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Television","Star Trek","AMC","The Walking Dead","TV"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt61096435b3179946/6988a70f8e0601d2f44678e7/walking-dead-finale.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Megan McCluskey","jobTitle":"Staff Writer","url":"https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt61096435b3179946/6988a70f8e0601d2f44678e7/walking-dead-finale.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"walking-dead-finale","caption":"The Walking Dead Season 6, Episode 16","creditText":"Gene Page/AMC","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4504963/walking-dead-star-trek-interview/","name":"AMC Believes The Walking Dead Could Last as Long as Star Trek"}}]}] ```